Free Republic

When Justinian secured the so-called "Eternal Peace" with the Persians in AD 532 after the Battle of Daras, it is likely that he realized that the peace on his eastern frontier would not actually be perpetual. But he probably thought it would last longer that seven or eight years. In any event, the emperor made the most the respite, gathering his substantial forces from the east which had previously been on station to face down the Persian menace, and readying them for a thrust to the West. His first target was the Vandal Kingdom which had ruled Roman Africa for...

Two young men were arrested for tearing down posters of hostages kidnapped in the Israel-Hamas war that were hung up outside a private property in Gramercy Park, police said Thursday. Charlotte Wimer, who uses he/him pronouns, and Gray Segal, both 18, were arrested just after 5 p.m. Wednesday after they were caught ripping down posters of Israeli children and adults kidnapped by the terrorist group on display outside 201 East 23rd Street, cops said. Both Wimer and Segal, who live on the Lower East Side, were charged with criminal mischief, police said. Video taken moments after the incident and shared...

Tens of thousands of pro-Hamas/Palestinian demonstrators marched in downtown DC on Saturday demanding a ‘cease fire.’ “We’re here to say we support freedom for Palestine,” ANSWER Coalition media coordinator Walter Smolarek said, according to NBC Washington. “We’re here to demand a cease-fire now. We demand an end to the massacre of civilians in Gaza.” “We’re gathered here because we believe that the Palestinian people have the right to live in freedom, have the right to live in peace and without being subjected to constant bombardments, to constant imprisonment, harassment, the occupation of their land,” Smolarek said. A massive group of...

Seven children destroyed a couple's six-bedroom home using chainsaws, axes, and sledgehammers to smash their antiques and even ruin the victim's wedding dress, a UK court heard last month. The group took the tools from the owners' garage and embarked on their monthlong vandalism spree in May last year, causing £300,000 ($371,000) in damages to the £1.2 million ($1.5 million) property on the Isle of Wight while the homeowners were away, local news outlet Island Echo reported. The youths, aged as young as 11 years old, destroyed paintings, a stained-glass window, a chandelier, and a grandfather clock and had sprayed...

It was a choice to melt down Robert E. Lee. But it would have been a choice to keep him intact, too. So the statue of the Confederate general that once stood in Charlottesville — the one that prompted the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in 2017 — was now being cut into fragments and dropped into a furnace, dissolving into a sludge of glowing bronze. Six years ago, groups with ties to the Confederacy had sued to stop the monument from being taken down. Torch-bearing white nationalists descended on the Virginia college town to protest its removal, and one...

Hunter Biden's now 29-year-old daughter, Naomi Biden, allegedly 'vandalized' the United State's Capitol back in 2011 while she worked as a Senate Page. The then 17-year-old allegedly 'deformed' the Dome, prompting her father to apologize to the head of the page program at the time. Naomi was a student at Washington D.C.'s elite Sidwell Friends High School when she landed a gig as a page for Nevada Senator Harry Reid. At the time, Reid was the chamber's majority leader, and her grandfather, Joe Biden, was Barack Obama's Vice President. Naomi was given a tour of the prestigious Capitol Dome in...

A kosher restaurant in London was vandalised in an apparent antisemitic attack overnight following the invasion of Israel by Hamas terrorists and amid growing concern over potential violence against Jewish people across Europe. The ‘Pita’ restaurant in the famously Jewish neighbourhood of Golders Green in north London saw its glass door smashed with a fire extinguisher sometime between Sunday evening and Monday morning, the Times of London reported. The act of vandalism was carried out just yards away from a London Underground overpass which was tagged with graffiti reading “Free Palestine”. Another nearby bridge was branded with the phrase “Palestine...

Shortly before 11:30 a.m., deputies responded to C Avenue and Hercules Street, where they found “a span of fiber optic cables [had been] cut from poles,” the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release. The primary service provider, Charter/Spectrum, told deputies about the damage, which was caused by an unknown person and was estimated to cost about $40,000, officials said. The outage lasted “several hours until the restoration was completed,” and it “appears the vandalism may have also affected customers of other network providers,” officials added. No suspected vandal has been identified, and the motive remains unknown.

A man who was recorded toppling a statue of the Virgin Mary at the St. Rose of Lima Church in Buffalo, New York, has been arrested and charged with a hate crime. The Buffalo Police Department announced in a news release Sunday, that they arrested 40-year-old Michael Manns and charged him with one count of criminal mischief in the third degree, designated as a hate crime, which is a class D felony, as well as criminal mischief in the third degree, a class E felony. Manns’ arrest comes less than two weeks after the June 28 attack on the church...

<p>As a person who believes in incentives, I think this is great, and I hope it sets a new precedent. A judge has ordered vandals to pay restitution equal to approximately 27 times the amount of the damage that they caused. I hope that all future vandals will be held to this same standard.</p>

Environmental protest groups have been targeting art history's greatest treasures to raise awareness about climate change. Climate activists turned up the heat this year, decrying the global environmental crisis by targeting internationally renowned art museums’ greatest treasures—and leading many onlookers to wonder how their actions actually connect with the greater good. Just last week, protesters from Just Stop Oil glued themselves to Vermeer’s iconic Girl With a Pearl Earring in the latest of their ongoing art demonstrations, previously focused on the U.K. The same group blasted a Rolex store in London with orange paint less than 24 hours later. In...

Gardaí said they are investigating a number of incidents of criminal damage in Dublin after climate campaigners deflated tires on SUVs. Members of the so-called Tire Extinguishers group have been using lentils to let air out of tires in vehicles they describe as “gas guzzlers”. Since December, dozens of motorists in Dublin and Meath have been targeted, as part of an international campaign across numerous countries. The group said the aim of the initiative is to try to reduce the use of SUV-type vehicles on the roads, particularly in urban areas. The activists involved employ a tactic of putting lentils...

The Washington Post received advance notice about a protest in which environmental activists vandalized a sculpture in Washington, D.C., the Justice Department (DOJ) said Friday. Joanna Smith and Timothy Martin were charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and with injury to a National Gallery of Art exhibit stemming from a protest where they smeared paint on a case holding “Little Dancer, Age Fourteen” by Edgar Degas on April 27, and each faces up to five years in prison for each charge, the DOJ announced. The Washington Post, though not named in the indictment, received advanced...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A man who drove the car that helped pull down the statue of a Civil War hero and abolitionist outside of the Wisconsin state Capitol during a night of protests in 2020 has been sentenced to six months in jail. The statue of Hans Christian Heg was toppled and beheaded during a protest in downtown Madison in June 2020 against police brutality. Protests began a month earlier over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and flared up again that June after Madison police arrested a Black activist. Kelsey D. Nelson, 33, was sentenced for...

The home of the Republican state senator has been vandalized over his bill banning sex changes for minors — which the governor has signed into law. The vandalism took place at the home of Sen. Mike Kennedy on the evening of April 21. The vandal left messages in red spray paint across Sen. Kennedy’s garage, including “Fash,” presumably meaning Fascist, and “these trannies bash back.”

A crowd of more than a hundred rowdy teenagers turned violent in Downtown Chicago on Saturday night as dozens torched and smashed cars while blaring music in a 'teen trend' that left two with gunshot wounds. Shocking footage showed some teenagers jumping on top of a bus while others started a massive brawl after descending on Millennium Park and attempting to breach barricades. Gunshots rang out with some rounds striking two teenage boys aged 16 and 17. The two youths were transported to a nearby hospital in fair condition. A total of 15 people, nine adults and six children were...

Vandals have destroyed sacred artwork in South Australia thought to be about 30,000 years old. The Nullarbor Plain art, which are designs carved into the chalk limestone walls of the Koonalda Cave, has special significance for the region's Aboriginal Mirning people. The vandals are thought to have dug under a steel gate before scrawling "don't look now, but this is a death cave" on the walls. The authorities are investigating. Individuals found to have damaged an Aboriginal site or item currently face a fine of A$10,000 ($6,700; £5,500) or up to six months in prison under South Australia's Aboriginal heritage...

Gibraltar finally joined the official list of British cities on Monday (Aug 29), after 180 years in which its status, granted by Queen Victoria, had been overlooked due to an administrative error. The British overseas territory bid to become a city earlier this year as part of the celebrations for Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee, but research in the National Archives established it had in fact been granted city status in 1842. "It is excellent to see official recognition given to the City of Gibraltar, a huge accolade to its rich history and dynamism," British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in...

The U.K. climate group whose members deflated tires on an estimated 40 vehicles in New York City last month recently announced similar actions in cities nationwide. The Tyre Extinguishers, which encourages activists to deflate tires of parked sports utility vehicles (SUV) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, said it has already spread to Chicago and the San Francisco area this month. Individuals affiliated with the group have deflated the tires of 20 SUVs in Chicago, another 20 SUVs in Scranton, Pa., and 12 SUVs near San Francisco this month, according to the group.

Climate change activists with a group calling itself Tyre Extinguishers are celebrating their first 'action' in New York City - deflating the tires of 40 SUVs on Manhattan's Upper East Side. The movement, which originated in the United Kingdom, seeks to dissuade people from owning SUVs in urban areas, and switch instead to more environmentally-friendly vehicles. The SUVs they vandalized had leaflets let on the windshield, which stated: 'Attention: Your gas guzzler kills'. On Twitter, they boasted about their actions. 'BIG NEWS: TYRE EXTINGUISHERS STRIKE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN NEW YORK CITY!' they tweeted on Tuesday. They said: '40...